So after fixing a screw up by someone else I paid to fix some paint issues on my car (mild scratches, residue, etc.. things I could have done better myself!) I had taken my precious baby to the car wash. This one I've been going to more often due to the weather, has proven to be pretty reliable. The don't always get it right but they never screwed up the paint like most other washes.

So I pull up to the little track where the guy sprays you off before you go in, and I'm used to this, I've got the routine down. So I pull up, throw it in neutral and immediately get on my phone to pass the next few minutes bs'ing on FB. I heard the the swoosh of the wash in front of me going and could feel the slight movement of the pressure sprayer over my car. Then, I heard a nice thunk in the rear. I looked up. This guy had one of those monster stiff tire brush type of brushes that you would use to clean Big Foot, and he was brushing the top of my trunk lid. I was frozen solid in a state of absolute shock. I looked forward toward the hood. Yup. He already got that part. And absolutely no water was sprayed on prior to his seemingly practiced way of torturing cars. And that thunk was him being a careless a$$hole.

So I prayed. Made it out the other side just slightly shaking. Pulled up and some other jackass who I saw drop his rag on the ground came toward my car with the intention of drying it. I got out and put a stop to that. I grabbed my own drying cloth from my arsenal of cleaning supplies in my trunk and dried off the trunk lid and my hood. Sure as hell the guy and the brush from hell put 100,000k miles worth of scratch marks in my paint in less than 30 seconds.

I was so pissed I couldn't even go inside and complain. I thought I might literally beat someone into a coma. So. Lesson learned. No matter how dirty your car is there is no substitute for the care you will give it yourself.

Even worse, there was a brand new red BMW M3 that I saw getting dried off already as I was led out of the wash. My guess is he got the same treatment.

So, a couple of days later and still pissed, I'm thinking through my options. What recourse would any of you take?

 

I NEVER take my car to a car wash for these reasons. Hand wash at home only.

 

My answer to your last question about recourse: don't go to McDonald's and behave like you're at the French Laundry.

Translation: if this happened to me, I would stop the bleeding *now*, take responsibility for my mistake, and go hire a *real* detailer who charges more than $200, or spend that $200 on a PC polisher and fix it myself. But that's just me, I get really aggravated dealing with the uneducated masses.

 

^^ This.

 

Don't beat yourself up on this, there's a reason why my CBP has so much swirl marks too (ouch).

Go to a detailer, with clay bar and other buffing agents, they should be able to restore the shine back to your car.

Good luck.

 

Damn! I would have choked a bish. I wish I lived somewhere were the weather was decent enough to wash the car year round in or out of the garage.

Right now the temperature is like 5*F so it'd be too cold to wash the car. Plus, sometimes we have to take the car to a carwash to wash all the salt grime from the bottom of our cars here in Indiana or the Midwest in general.

 

i agree-when I lived in Pa-I would go to a carwash to get the underbody cleaned of all that road salt. Even with living in NC now it gets too cold at times to hand wash the car.

 

I couldn't agree more with all of your responses. I had already gone to a real autobody shop to get a price on a buff and wax after the other joe screwed with it. $250. Not too bad. But I was able to fix that myself. I did a damn good job too. And two days later.... ugh. Well, happy I didn't get the buff and wax or I would have jammed that brush.. well you get the point. At least I really learned my lesson this time. Too bad it had to be like this.

Just thought I'd share that story with the masses. Maybe someone might learn from my mistake. Hopefully, for your car's sake.

 

Same thing happened to my old civic back in 06. Don't really get the idea behind that stupid brush to the trunk. (damn winter)
Anyway, as soon as it came out of the wash, I went to see the manager and complained. At first he was like "I have cars far more expensive than yours go through this car wash and I never get any complaints". Then I led him out and showed him what the douche bag did. He admitted fault and being a professional detailer himself, he offered to detail my car.
Long story short, he spent 5 hours detailing my "civic" and the car looks like it just came out of the showroom. Lesson learned the hard way.
You should've complained as soon as you saw the scratches.

Oh, and did I say that the guy who did it got fired?

 

The car wash I used, Mike's Carwash, doesn't use a brush beforehand. They usually spray the vehicle off, but that's about it. They do a pretty good wash. Of course you'll get minor swirl marks from the brushes at this carwash but they are easy to buff out in one pass.

They have huge air blowers drying your car at the end so only some minor drying is needed.

 

See thats the funny part about this. I have no idea where the brush came from. It was never there before. If I had seen it before it happened (if i was paying attention) this never would have occured.

 

I wash my own car. No one will take as good care as yourself. I pre rinse it then use a special very soft brush made of the same stuff used in the purdy paint brushes. And rainx with carnuba wax and water then I use a ultra plush microfiber drying towel. Its amazing how nice the towel dries and the car shines nicely.

It all takes like 40 minutes.

 

Even with good intentions, you can still cause micro scratches to occur on your car washing it by hand.

You just have to make sure you properly wash out your mitts, brushes, sponges, etc. of debris stuck in them.

Weather permitting, I use the three bucket method with grit guards to loosen off the dirt that is trapped on my sheepskin mitt.

Aftercare of your towels, sponges, mitts, etc. is also important. Especially, if you got the car detailed or detailed it yourself. Nothing sucks more than thinking you're doing everything right then come to find out you've been putting swirl marks back onto the car because of debris still stuck onto your "clean" towel.

 

This is why its better to hand wash its hard tho if u live in mass were its currently 20 degrees out and then the snow makes everything worse

 

I've been hardcore about washing it myself since I bought it. But then it started getting cold. So I got lazy. Oh well. Moving on.